A CHANGE IN KING’S NEPALI

Wed Mar 2 20:12:47 UTC 2005

A CHANGE IN KING’S NEPALI

Nepal’s  king  has his own type of language like the ‘King’s English’ in Britain. There  has been a noticeable change in the King’s language in recent times. The royal family members of  Nepal are addressed  by the people with some specific words like: ‘maushuph’[he/him or she/her] ‘gari+baksyo’ [did], gari+baksanechha [will do], sukala [sleep], bhuja [lunch or meal] jyunar [eat food], darshan+bhet [seeing, meeting] etc. These terms are only used if one has to address the royal family members.

Before the restoration of democracy in 1990, general public, except for King’s relatives, were not entitled to use the King’s Nepali. Nowadays, general people in urban areas copy King’s Nepali and speak in a kind of fashion. But there is restriction for the general public to formally or publicly  speak this language for themselves. Instead,  political leaders as well as others do not hesitate to address the king or the royal family members in general terms with media or others like: woha [him], garnu+bhayo [did], bhet [seeing, meeting]. But they must use the King’s Nepali when they are to speak in front of the king or any formal  programs.

Nepali is a lingua-franca for almost  20 millions peoples in Nepal. Ta, timi, tapai, hajur, yaha, maushuf  are equivalent to the personal pronoun ‘you’ of which ‘ta ’and ‘timi’ are informal ones.

The capital city of Kathmandu, a hub for Nepalese peoples has undergone some language change in recent times. As the Maoist insurgency has intensified, people have no way other than to migrate to Kathmandu for safety. So, a strange language mix-up is taking place nowadays. For example people of eastern Nepal say ‘niska+nu’  [to enter ] whereas people in the west say niska+nu’ [ to exit].  The latter say ‘pas+nu’  [to enter]. These two words are antonyms. The other noticeable usage is ‘bhyau+nu [to finish or complete a piece of work, affirmative], bhyau +daina’ [can’t complete or finish, negative]. But nowadays, this verb is widely used to mean ‘to become enough or less’. Let us check the sentences below:

‘Tyo kam bhya+nu’ [you finish the job/work]. Generally used by general public few years ago. But the Katmandu people now a days say  ‘Timro paisle bhyau +daina’ [your money is not enough to buy it] etc.

During the king’s rule in the past, Nepal followed the policy of one language one culture. So, in a democratic system peoples asserted their language rights. The Maoists radicals have also exploited language issues of Nepal. It also became an important agenda for them. In the event of king’s direct rule,  it is  now widely feared that Rights Movement in Nepal will halt for sometime. The concerned language communities will also  experience a setback. But, those communities will continue endeavoring to preserve their languages and somehow slow down the process of language death in the country.

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